As is generally known, a financial planner or the like may produce a financial plan for a client thereof, be it an individual, a married couple, a corporation or other organization, any other person, or the like (hereinafter, ‘person’). Alternatively, the person may produce the financial plan itself or may amend or otherwise alter an already-produced financial plan. In any of the aforementioned situations, it is to be appreciated that the financial plan can include a budget, a plan for spending funds, a plan for saving funds, and/or a plan for saving income. Typically, and with regard to various types of expenses such as rent, utilities, and the like, such a financial plan may specify how such expenses are to be paid, either with income from the person, income generated by investment instruments of the person, funds generated by liquidating such investment instruments, or even with funds obtained through loans, lines of credit, credit sources, and the like. As should be understood, the investment instruments referred to and employed by a financial plan may be most any investment instruments, such as stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit, mutual funds, savings accounts, rainy-day funds, and the like.
Notably, achieving financial goals in general requires not only producing a financial plan, but actually implementing the produced financial plan. That is, it is not enough merely to have a financial plan; instead, the person for whom the financial plan was produced must effectively take steps as set forth in the financial plan. Thus, if a financial plan for a person requires that the person pay expenses from income or funds (hereinafter, ‘funds’) derived from one or more particular sources, then the person should in fact pay the expenses with funds derived from such sources. Similarly, if the financial plan requires that a certain investment instrument should be liquidated at a particular time, then the person should in fact do so.
Of course, producing a financial plan and actually implementing the produced financial plan are different matters, especially when it is considered that finances in general can be highly complicated and highly subject to the vagaries of time and circumstances. Even with the best of intentions, a financial plan can go astray. People make many spontaneous decisions about purchasing items and the mechanism for making payments for such purchases. In doing so, such people often make poor decisions. In addition, when multiple persons are using the same assets (i.e., accounts, cash, credit cards, etc.) each of such multiple persons is often unaware of decisions made by the other or others, be they spouses, parents, children, or the like.
Thus, and to generalize, situations can arise where the financial plan assumes a set amount of expenses each month paid from funds derived from certain sources, and for whatever reason the actual expenses for the person are different, perhaps by being greater or less than the assumed expenses. Perhaps more relevant to the present disclosure, however, is that most persons simply do not follow the financial plan by deriving the funds from the sources specified according to such financial plan. That is, most persons do not have the discipline necessary to determine the proper source for funds and liquidate such funds from same. Instead, most persons obtain funds for expenses from whatever source is most expedient and without forethought. For one example, a person may choose to accumulate debt to obtain the funds, perhaps by way of a credit account or the like, simply because such credit account is easily accessible, and even though it would be more prudent according to a financial plan for the person to liquidate an investment such as shares of a stock. In another example, a person may choose to obtain the funds for an expense from such shares of stock, even though such person has a retirement account from which funds must be withdrawn according to the rules of such account.
Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods for implementing a financial plan with regard to expenses of a person. In particular, a need exists for such systems and methods that automatically generate funds from appropriate sources in response to expenses of a person to which such funds are to be applied and based on a produced financial plan. Generally, such generation of funds is performed according to a series of sequentially applied rules that are derived based on the produced financial plan. Thus, with such systems and methods, the financial plan produced for a person is carried out and the objectives of the person and the financial plan thereof are more likely to be achieved.